With or Without You
by lamatikah
Summary: ...They were taking over ... he just didn't realise how much ... or how much pain they would cause ... It wasn't fair... .:AxelxRoxasxNaminé:.
1. prologue

**W**_ith_ or **W**_ith_**ou**t **_Y_ou**

_prologue_

The boy sighed and looked at the sky, nothing seemed right, he was gone, there was nothing he could do. He hugged himself, it was cold and he was sat upon the peak of the highest hill, almost a mountain, of this tiny little island. If only he could bring him back, he wondered if he could get him back. Maybe it was all a dream and he'd been wrong … his best friend wouldn't do _that_ because of him. The boy shook his head as it fell into his hands. The girl next to him put her arm round him.

"It'll be okay … I promise…" she assured him, but how could it be, he was gone … gone … gone forever and ever and ever. But why, why did it have to happen to him, it could've happened to any other of the islanders. Actually, it probably wouldn't have … only that other boy would've done something that stupid, just out of loneliness.

"But … he's gone … he's … gone…" he repeated, cuddling up to her so he could smell her homely smell, it reminded him of before, before it happened. She wrapped both arms around him, however homely she smelt, he would never feel at home. The cold, sharp sting of the sea air mixed with his tears, he could feel them running down his face at a rapid speed, he could hear her sniff a bit, but she wouldn't cry, that would just make him feel worse.

"Come on, I'm sure he wouldn't have wanted you to be like this, don't cry, please. Please don't cry," the girl buried her head into his hair. She wasn't crying, but was deep in thought, thoughts of times she could of spent the boy, but didn't, he'd died without even knowing her properly. They all knew he didn't want to, even the boy sobbing next to her, but he was the only one who didn't realise why, "Don't cry…" she whispered.

"I can't help it…" came the muffled reply, he suddenly heard a noise in the bushes, the two turned round to see some other kids hiding there. Roxas dried his eyes and looked at the three nosy children. They had always hated him, but now they were acting as though they had all been having secret affairs with him or something, "What do you want?" he stumbled, he couldn't quite get the words out properly, his voice was slurred with the emotion of it all.

"We just came because … we thought you might want some company…" the girl told him, as though she was unsure of what to say. She was holding the brunette's hand, which was strange because she used to try to convince everyone including herself that Sora was not someone she even liked as a friend. It was obviously wrong as she proved here.

"I've got all the company I want here," the boy told them, firmly. He didn't want anyone but Naminé … and Axel. He didn't miss him anymore … he was past that stage, he wanted him …. needed him, he felt like he wasn't whole without him. He used to protect little Roxas when the first attacks came. He'd fight them off and Roxas would thank him and go off and play with little Naminé. He felt a burbly feeling in the pit of his stomach. He felt like he was going to puke. He buried his head in the girl's shoulder, she didn't care if Roxas was sick on her, she knew that people usually were sick when they looked sick. She tried to talk to the three without moving the general area Roxas had placed his head.

"Sit down if you really mean it, if you just want to be pervs go away," she told them softly. They stood around for a while, wondering what to do, then slowly, the girl slipped her hand out of the boys and walked over to the edge the other boy and girl were sat upon. Sora and Riku slowly followed. It was like a second funeral. Except this one didn't have any quotations from the bible, or distraught mothers weeping, claiming they loved their son…

Naminé leant her head against her head on top of Roxas'. They all stared out into the distance and noticed some black spots on the horizon. "OH NO! They're here! Get up Roxas, Roxas get up!" Roxas wanted to stay planted on his spot, he wanted to sit there forever. He didn't care if they killed him, that would make him feel better in fact, "Roxas, I'm not going to let them get you, they've got one of us … but they won't get you, THEY WON'T GET YOU!" She grabbed his hand and wrenched him up, "I'm not going without you … that means I'll die too, Roxas…" he heard that, he wasn't about to let her die as well.

"What are we waiting for?" he cried, the five ran for it, all of them feeling sick, they knew what these monsters were capable of. They no longer needed playground stories to prove it. They had actual records and details and everything.

"Axel… I really cared about you," he whispered to the darkening horizon while they sprinted down the sloping hillside. Not that that would make any difference – not now. It was too little, too late…

**-x-x-x-**

_A/N: Hehe … the prologue is like the AFTER and the actual story is DURING, so it's not actually like that. This time I know EXACTLY everything that happens. Except for one thing though … Oh well! I'll find out … some time. Pwease. Pwease, pwease, REVIEW! I don't just want Rachael going THIS WILL BE A GOOOOOOOD STORY – I KNOW BECAUSE I'M CLEVER … DUUUUUUH! (I'm not being mean – she's my best friend – it's just that she … does do that, plus, you may not review like that, but she says stuff like that) I know it's short, it's just I don't want to put too much into it, because I want to properly start it in Chapter 1._


	2. laugh

-Chapter 1-

-laugh-

"It was funny!" the boy laughed, the girl smiled her pretty little smile, the red-head laughed hysterically. Teachers would quote them as 'the best friends' in the group, of course there was the other three, complete with their own red-head too, but they never seemed as close as these three.

"Yeah, did you see her face? That was the funniest!" cried out the red-head in a sudden burst of confidence, their teachers would also quote that this certain boy's 'confidence came in bursts, but never in a consistent pattern'.

"And when she tripped over the sandbox!" then there was the girl, 'always bubbly and cheerful, always one to stand out from the crowd'. The only one left was the blonde boy, he was just the spare, nothing described him, he just stood with the other two. The teachers had a feeling that when they were older and boys would interest the girl, she'd be after the tall, red-headed one. Not the average, blondie.

"Heh heh! I hope she does something stoopid again soon!" the said boy laughed, they had just seen 'the funniest thing in their life … ever!'

"You're dumb! You don't say 'stOOpid', you say 'stYOUpid'!" the girl corrected him indignantly. It got rather annoying for the five-year old when she was constantly correcting her two friends.

"Sorry Nam…" he bowed his head in shame, Naminé hugged him to show Roxas that he was forgiven. Axel looked left out so she hugged him too. She giggled, she liked having two people to hug. She tried to remember when she was a little tiny baby and whether she had people to hug then, but she couldn't remember of course, so she just pretended that Roxas and Axel had always been there to hug and be friends with.

◊▫◊▫◊

"…And then she tripped over it and we all laughed, well only me and Axel and Roxas did because we were the only ones there but it was still really funny and we laughed because it was and she showed this funny face and we laughed even more and then Axel tried to pretend to be her and he showed the same face and me and Roxas laughed some more and then I almost WEED!" Yuna pulled a face and Naminé laughed some more, she'd obviously done a lot of laughing that day and it hadn't done much good to her health.

"Naminé … You've down here for three hours, dear. Please can you get back upstairs and back into bed, I'm sure your day was very funny, but you might have a funnier day tomorrow, so I'm sure you don't want to miss it, go on, up you get…" the woman tried to get through to her daughter in a defeated voice, it didn't seem to be working. She had been trying to watch the news. There'd been some sort of … Heart … things … she hadn't really been listening; she'd been listening to the enchanting sound of her happy daughter. The warbling way she explained it, Yuna could get lost in it, it was like ecstasy, it took her back to the time when Tidus was still at home, when he didn't have 'work' to get to. She knew why he was really gone, he didn't need her anymore. This made her need for Naminé even stronger, "C'mon, I'll take you up,"

"Heh heh!" Naminé giggled, "Mummy?"

"Mmmm…" Yuna had drifted off again, one syllable could set her off, it was like a disease, and she couldn't help it. And she couldn't cry in front of her daughter either, that would just scare the poor girl, maybe she best left that for when she was curled up in her huge double bed, with no one to curl up next to.

"What's that?" Naminé pointed at the T.V. set with an odd expression on her face, there flickering on the screen was some sort of black thing, but Yuna was too slow to catch it.

"Oh, I'm sure it was nothing, come on sugar, let's get you to bed."

◊▫◊▫◊

The little boy lay in his bed, his pyjamas still lying on the floor from the morning, his mother didn't care, so why should he? Well, he should, he knew that, it's just his mother didn't really care about him. They were two separate beings, neither one really knew the other. There wasn't really much to know about Roxas though, he was just a chubby little five-year old, still growing out of his baby-fat and blonde hair not really growing … at all really. Just a few short spikes. It wasn't fair, he was jealous of Sora's, it stuck up in thick locks, it just wasn't right.

Roxas could hear shouting from somewhere down below. That was life. His mum just wasn't used to the 'motherly' business. Cloud was telling … screaming at her that she didn't understand and that everyone had one and that he didn't care if she didn't like Aerith, because he did. Roxas turned over, he wasn't meant to know all this stuff at the tender age of five, but he did.

◊▫◊▫◊

"Come on Axie," his bubbly mother shoved him up the stairs as he whined, he didn't want to go to bed, he wanted to carry on playing with the matches on the kitchen counter, but he couldn't tell her that or she'd freak out.

"OK…" he slouched up the stairs, his bottom lip firmly placed above his upper one. His mother laughed.

"Aw! Come on Axie! Get up those stairs and do it with good grace! You make me laugh…" she carried on laughing as she entered the living room to the awaiting husband of hers, "You know, he's really cute when you actually listen to him for once in a while. C'mon, give it a try…" the red-headed man whipped his head round and glared at her. Axel gulped, as soon as Rikku had her back turned, he had run down to see if he could grab the fire creating tools. But he'd decided to wait and listen to Reno and Rikku.

"I don't want to '_get to know_' him … he's not mine, he's yours," the man turned his head back to the TV, he stared blankly into the screen. Rikku looked upset, she looked up at him sadly, he just didn't get it. Axel was his. But so was someone else, but that didn't mean Rikku had two children. Axel pattered into the kitchen and found the 'tools' he was looking for. Then he quickly pattered upstairs.

◊▫◊▫◊

"Come on! Let's go and see if the parks empty as well," the girl skipped ahead of the two boys, as they shifted about wondering whether to follow her or not. Riku had warned them when they had ran past that they weren't allowed out and the police would get them and kill them. This was shortly followed by maniacal laughter coming from inside his room, Sora and Kairi had obviously joined him for this great little day in.

"Er … Nam, maybe we should go home instead…" Axel began, feeling even more timid and afraid than usual.

"You don't _really _believe Riku do you?" she laughed her tinkly little laugh and Roxas joined in, although his laugh wasn't as tinkly. Axel smiled, his eyes getting smaller as his cheeks creased up around them.

"No, c'mon then…" the three ran off in the direction of the park. They got to the gates and Naminé smiled.

"See, what did I tell you – nothing, nothing, nothing, no police getting us or anything!" the excitable girl told him jumpily, she held the two by the hand and forced them into the green and yellow paradise.

She had her head bowed down, eyes clenched in the strain of pulling the frightened boys into their, usually favourite place to be. They however had large eyes, frightened and bulging. Black dots started to appear up out of nowhere. It was like they had known that the three were going to come here. They seemed to pop up like shadows, black silhouettes, sucking the usual brightness out of the place, the beams of sun whispering against their light-absorbent skin. Naminé had noticed the boys weren't moving at all now. She spun round, accidentally letting go of their unwilling hands. Out of nowhere, it seemed to come from her own shadow, a black being tried to swallow her up. She could see it looming over her, seconds before a red flash pinned her to the floor before returning his attention to the other blonde.

"Axel! Help … Axel!" Roxas could hardly breathe, the dark creature had almost swallowed him up before the black thing began to squirm, Axel was kicking it. Although that was a bad idea, the thing had turned on Axel now, it was gathering up all it's strength into killing the little fly who'd started to annoy it.

"Naminé! Axel! Roxas! Here NOW!" a woman stood at the gates, she looked hot and flustered, two other women were close behind, panting with all this exercise, they were not used to.

"Axie! C'mere, come on!" Rikku held her arms out to her darling son, Paine pointed to the ground next to her and Yuna held her daughter, who'd had the sense to run to them straight away. Eventually Roxas pushed himself through the ever-growing crowd of darkness. Axel however was still mad with the black thing that had tried to eat his friend. He was kicking and kicking, black circling round him, he didn't notice; until Rikku grabbed him by the waist and forced him back through.

◊▫◊▫◊

"Why did you freak us all out yesterday?" the three sat on their carefully positioned chairs, they would never be able to escape now, "Why did you go?" Yuna didn't seem angry, neither did Rikku, but Paine was. She may have been a bad mother, and didn't _seem _to care about her sons, but she did. Speaking of which, Cloud was sitting at the window, he was drifting off. He was five years older than the blondes, four years older than the red head.

"Mummy…" Roxas burbled, he didn't understand why she was so cross, they'd no idea of what the really bad thing they'd done was. They just knew that something attacked them and almost killed them. Paine may have been angry but she still had a soft spot for the three.

"Oh, I'm sorry, it's just … you really gave us a shock…" Paine told them, looking lovingly into each child's eye. They all looked shocked, that wasn't the normal Paine, each kid's mouth hung open in disbelief. Yuna and Rikku stifled an almost laugh, and went over to their little darlings, checking for a millionth time that they were ok. Roxas looked confused and jealous. Why did Naminé and Axel get so much love, but Paine gave him the bare minimum. He got up from his chair. _Oooops…_ he though, waiting for the blazing sirens to be set off, the room turn to dark and spotlights swirl around, centring the boy. But they didn't, so he calmly walked over to Cloud. It was a good thing they lived near Aerith; the older boy would have gone mad.

"HI AERITH!" shouted Roxas, trying to grab her attention, this time the sirens did go off, in Paine's head.

"ROXAS! SHUT UP! _THEY _WILL HEAR YOU!" she screamed at him, he cowered into the corner and shut up. Cloud softly smiled at him, he'd been trying to grab the girl's attention for hours, without getting very far, now Roxas had done it for him.

He motioned to the computer, mouthing, 'COMPUTER – GO ON COMPUTER!' over and over again, before she realised what the hell he was on about. She nodded and ran up to her room, Cloud to the corner of the room.

"Mum, are we really staying here for a long time?" Axel asked his mother happily, Rikku nodded, she didn't look as happy, she looked scared. It wasn't that she didn't like Yuna or Paine, it's just she left Reno at home, he'd be all alone, wishing he had someone with him, and there was someone he could just simply call up and he'd be there in a flash. He'd be with his daughter there, and _her _mother.

"So Axie, what do ya wanna do?" Rikku asked him, "Do you wanna play with Roxas and Naminé, while me, Yuna and Paine talk about … adult things. Would that be OK?" Axel nodded and moped off to join Naminé who was trying to make Roxas feel better.

"Come on Rox, let's go to your room and play a game…" Roxas still looked a bit miffed, he got up slowly and walked with them up the stairs and into his room.

"What do you want to play then?" Roxas asked the two standing meekly by the doorway, he tried to act happy but they could tell by the way he gulped back the tears, he wasn't. Naminé walked over to him and hugged him lightly.

"It's not your fault," she whispered, "I think we should play Bounce!" the other two immediately perked up, Bounce was their all-time favourite game … ever. They had made it up themselves. But they could only play it outside usually, they hoped that their stressed mothers would understand that as they weren't allowed to go outside, they should be allowed to play it. So they spent the rest of the afternoon hopping after each other, avoiding the random toys strewn across the floor and the obvious difficulty that Roxas' room was far too small. They then settled down, had a warm drink and dropped off to sleep in their mattress-like beds.

**-x-x-x-**

_A/N: Awwww … cute, five-year olds! Anyway, I know I said at the beginning that Axel hated Naminé or something like that, well, you'll see why later. Next chapter is with SEVEN-YEAR OLDS! Please review and … well, enjoy really. ._

_P.S. I know that Cloud and Aerith are only ten and are going out (or 'going steady' or whatever it is Americans call it!) but that's to try and tell people that just because they're young doesn't mean they're young in the brain. I read a book the other day and they were acting as though 12 year-olds are 7-year olds (which we are NOT) and that all 7 year-olds act like 5 year-olds (which some do, but not most)_


	3. breathe

-Chapter 2-

-breathe-

"Watch this," he flicked a pencil, it hit her backside with a humorous 'twang'. The three burst out laughing. The blonde haired kid who'd just hit his target perfectly for the twenty-third time flung his hands into fists and danced up and down with them, "BULLSEYE! … Ooops…" the woman walked over to him, there was nothing funny about what he'd just done anymore. It may have been funny the first twenty or so times, but now it was just getting tedious and repetitive.

"And _what _do you think you're doing?" she asked him curtly, a slight edge to her voice as though she might kill something if they didn't take her teachers licence away for it.

"Erm … Axel was … erm … but Riku said that … please miss…" Rinoa Heartilly was not taking any of it, she had had enough.

"You kids … I wish I had stayed in the damned high school … could've put you in detention if I did…" she mumbled to herself, completely unaware of Roxas, Naminé and Axel sneaking away into the playground.

"That was so close!" Roxas sniggered; he was getting rather bossy and annoyingly outgoing. But neither Naminé nor Axel cared.

"Yeah, well it wouldn't have been so close if Naminé hadn't laughed so loud," Axel snapped at her, she shied away timidly, she didn't like it when Axel shouted at her, he seemed to be doing a lot of it at the moment.

"Sorry…" Naminé bent her head down low, she would just look at her shoes and not the accusatational glares she was gaining. She was only gaining one, Roxas would just ignore Axel when he did stuff like that, it usually worked and he'd stop pratting about and they'd go off and do some more year 4-ish stuff, they were almost at the gate now. He put his hand on his head, those spikes still weren't as spiky or as thick as Sora's, this was really, really bugging him now, he wanted cool spikes like that.

"ALL OF YOU! Get in the school NOW!" some teacher screeched, the kids in the playground turned their heads as a siren went off, they sprinted towards the direction of the door. The black things started to appear, the teachers were outside and making sure that all the kids got in safely. The two blondes made it to the door first and as soon as they did, they stopped a while, caught their breath and carried on running till they got to the classroom.

"Have you ever been face to face with one then Riku?" a group of giggly girls crowded round the boy, he smiled and looked at them as though smiling would make him look good. But in fact, it made him look bad. But not to the swarms of girls huddled round the 'superhero' swooned. Riku was enjoying this, it made Roxas jealous.

"'Course I have!" the boy told his fans, "If I hadn't, then I wouldn't have this scar to prove it!" he produced from under his sleeve an obviously fake, biro-drawn line, "See that proves it!" the girls all gasped and looked at Riku as though he was going to faint or die or … something heroic like that.

"You don't get scars from _them_!" Roxas cried out, his anger finally bursting out of him, Riku was just a fake, "They eat you…" Riku laughed, his laughter shortly followed by a simultaneous giggle coming from the bunch of scary fan girls.

"Fine then. Prove it!" Riku snickered, the girls 'oohing' sarcastically, it was all too much for a seven year-old, even if he knew the dangers, he had to, or else everyone would be laughing at him for the rest of his life.

"Alright … I will, but you know, I've already been attacked by nearly A HUNDRED before! And Axel and Naminé was there too! Weren't you?" Naminé nodded meekly, Axel nodding extravagantly.

"Of course!" Riku shouted sarcastically, "Well, go on, what are you waiting for, if you've already done it before, why don't you do it now?"

"Ye-eah!" the girls were _really _getting on Axel's nerves now, as well as everyone else's as they spoke all their words in an gloating synchrony.

"Don't worry, I'm going," Roxas was out of the classroom door before Axel had time to take in what he was a bout to do, he had thought that Roxas wasn't so high and mighty and 'I'm-better-than-alll-of-you' that he'd actually do it. But he did.

"Roxas!" he shouted after him.

◊▫◊▫◊

Struggling against them was easier than he remembered. First of all, last time this happened, he was five and was tiny and his little feet weren't big enough to attack back and second of all, he didn't have Naminé dragging him through a whole herd of them. But one thing he really needed, he needed Axel to save him. He tried to breathe, he felt like he was drowning, his head would bob up and down every now and again, everytime he did, he gasped for oxygen during every trip to the light. He started wondering how smart his plan had been in the first place. And if he would really have to get eaten to prove his point, it would be a humorous death and people at his funeral would be laughing as his body … or what was left of it, if any … was dropped unceremoniously into the awaiting ground below. He gasped for more breath, but he couldn't find any, he squirmed around, he panicked, grasping out to nothing, but something tried to grab round his wrist. He was wrenched out of the 'Pit-of-Despair' by an angry looking boy.

"YOU IDIOT!" the red-head cried out in frustration, "You could have got yourself killed and you didn't CARE! You did it because you were jealous…" Roxas didn't want to stick around any longer and Axel soon found out why. Reason one, Roxas was not in favour of Axel chastising him like some sort of over-protective mother, and reason two, Axel was now in danger of being enveloped in dark folds of empty blackness and glowing yellow eyes. As Axel ran, over and over in his mind, the words, _I hate him I hate him I hate him I hate him_... were repeating themselves like some sort of broken record.

When he got back in the classroom, a fleet of girls smothered him in 'Oh my god's' and 'You did it!' type of remarks. He should've felt proud and happy and 'better-than-the-rest' sort of feeling but he didn't, he just wanted to get to Roxas and tell him what he could've done. He could just about see him through the bulk of terrifying monsters attacking him. He had his hands in his pockets and was staring at Axel as though he was the stuff that he stepped in earlier that morning. Roxas turned away and stared out the curtained window with Naminé, she was drifting off and Axel didn't like it.

◊▫◊▫◊

"Right, sleeping bags?" the teacher asked her class who replied with a quick nod of the head from the majority, the rest couldn't be bothered, Miss Heartilly could see that they had everything they needed, so why did she have to ask? "Good, we're all set, now, lights out at nine and talking till ten, got it?" She wasn't really asking them, she was telling them but that made no difference, if she felt like asking them, she'd ask them.

Roxas was annoyed, they'd be stuck in school for about a week and that wasn't really fun if you're annoyed with your best friend and the other one doesn't really talk at all. He turned over to see Axel's face beaming into his, "Roxas you're an idiot," he remarked jollily, Roxas cried out in surprise.

"Woah! What are you doing? I thought you hated me now because you said I was an idiot!" Roxas had never quite got out of the warbling on and on for hours on end stage, he still had some baby-fat as well.

"'Course I don't hate you! You're my best friend silly! It's just, I don't want to be angry with my best friend while the place is getting overrun by _them_." No one actually knew what the creatures were called, so most of the islanders referred to the monsters as _them_. Nobody was sure why they were there either, sure there were a few rumours, but most of them were dumb playground tales like they were ghosts who wanted to kill the people who had killed them, but Roxas had never killed anyone, so why would they want to murder him?

"That's good," replied Roxas yawning slightly, it had been a long day, collecting provisions and various camping items. He had mainly spent it with Naminé, she talked quite a bit if you actually tried to, but he'd been hanging round with Axel so much, and without realising it, leaving Naminé out. He hoped he could spend a day with her again tomorrow - that would be nice. Soon, he drifted off, dreaming nice dreams where everything was colourful and the world was peaceful, until one day, and he didn't know why, there was something missing, something had gone.

"Roxas, you OK?" a worried voice brought him back to real life, Naminé's pretty face beamed down on him, "You were shouting stuff out…" he smiled up at her.

"Yeah, I'm fine … sorry, did I wake you up? What time is it?" Roxas planted the questions on her, for the first question Naminé nodded.

"Don't worry!" she told him, yawning slightly, looking at the clock, "I needed waking up as well, bad dreams, anyway, it's about half past one in the morning…" she smiled at him again as he curled up, closing his eyes.

"That's nice," he murmured, before dropping off again. She lay on her back and tried to get comfortable, she soon fell asleep as well and drifted off into the mysterious land of her mind…

◊▫◊▫◊

"MUUUUUUUUUUM! CLOUD'SGOTMYBAGANDHE'SSWINGINGITROUNDANDROUNDANDSAYINGTHATIT'SHISNOW!" the boy screamed downstairs, his mum slapped her forehead and screamed back up at him.

"WELL, DON'T BE A WIMP – GET IT OFF HIM!" she just couldn't be bothered anymore. Roxas grumbled and walked away from his swinging bag and his taunting brother, he slouched into his room and lay down on his bed. He didn't want to be late for school and miss seeing Naminé and Axel for a moment longer than he could have. But he couldn't be bothered to fight Cloud today like he'd done for the past year. It wasn't worth it.

"C'mon Roxie!" teased his brother, "Don'cha want your itty bitty baby bag back?" Roxas sighed, he hated being called 'Roxie' and his bag being called baby-ish, he had customized it with Naminé the year before. For some reason, he never did anything with the both of them anymore. Hell, it had even been awkward when he had invited them both round for his tenth birthday.

"Roxas!" Roxas jumped up and jogged over to the window, "Roxas! There's another one tonight, they said that they think they've figured out a pattern which means … just come down!" Roxas saluted to the boy and hopped downstairs. It was fun when the things came because it meant they didn't have to go to school for a week, apparently this was what they called the 'Dumbing-down-of-Destiny-Islands' but it wasn't just Destiny Islands being affected, they were popping up everywhere, it was on the news and everything.

Traverse Town had been completely shut down and people had to move away to different places it was so bad. But the place being affected the most was Hollow Bastion, there was no signal AT ALL coming from them. The news readers loved these moments when they could report death and injury and other things only a severely mentally challenged person would love to know about. There had been no deaths at all in Destiny Islands, because they were so careful, but there were some idiots who thought it would be cool to get eaten up by the ever-growing darkness, they had gotten damaged in the lungs and heart and other major organs. No one knows exactly what will happen to them.

Cloud had given up on teasing Roxas so he was outside kissing Aerith; Roxas grabbed his bag and ran outside shouting, "Get a room!" He sprinted over to Axel and together they ran to school, Roxas eager to meet up with Naminé again, Axel eager to just spend time with Roxas.

◊▫◊▫◊

"Tidus!" Yuna cried out in surprise, "You're home!" Naminé clambered down the stairs to see what Yuna was shouting about. She hoped the woman hadn't gone mad, she'd heard about people like that, people who start missing others so much that they grab a broom and start dancing with it. She was wrong, her dad was there, standing on their doorstep, her mother's arms wrapped round his neck. She gasped, hardly believing it.

"Daddy?" she asked softly, he beckoned her forward, she walked forward arms outstretched, she had never even met her father. He had left when she was two. Why was he suddenly back? "Daddy…" she whispered as he hugged her. Yuna looked at her daughter and her father with deep fondness. All the things he'd done to her, she forgave him just like that. Tidus let go of Naminé and told her to go and have breakfast. She walked through into the kitchen and hid behind the door, she had to listen to what her parents were going to talk about after eight years.

"I'm back Yuna, there's nothing you can do about it…" he joked, she smiled and her eyes sparkled as she watched his every move, he put up his coat, laid his suitcase on the floor and let his eyes rest back on Yuna.

"You're really back? And you're not going to go … ever?" she asked him like a little girl, she felt like one, when she was on the island as a child, playing with Tidus and Rikku. Paine usually stayed at home and sulked, she usually did that nowadays too. But then again so did Yuna and Rikku.

"Never leave…" Tidus promised, he held his arms out to her, he really meant it, he had missed Yuna and Yuna had missed him. Naminé wasn't sure if he really did mean it though. From what she knew of dads who ran off, which was very little, she thought she knew that they never mean it when they say 'I'll stay with you forever'. She didn't trust him, he was a stranger. Her own father.

◊▫◊▫◊

"Hey Nam!" Roxas merrily greeted her, she smiled and nodded, Roxas then switched back to his usual mood, mainly sad and 'I can't be bothered' sort of mood.

"Anything unusual happen today?" Naminé asked him, a little afraid of herself, she was getting more and more afraid each day. She couldn't help it…

**-x-x-x-**

_A/N: Yeah … I went from SEVEN to TEN! Hehe, that means I made Cloud TWELVE then FIFTEEN! And Axel EIGHT to ELEVEN! xD Yeah, I know loads of things have been left unanswered, but ya see, I resolve them later on!_


	4. stare

-Chapter 3-

-stare-

Her stare was starting to scare him now … she was looking at him thoughtfully, as though she knew some sort of deep dark secret about him. Well, she did, she knew lots, but it was still a scary thoughtful look…

"Rox … Rox!" Roxas jumped and saw Axel staring at him expectantly, his eyes waiting for something, his mouth curved into a nervous smile. Roxas pulled a face.

"What?" he asked simply, the room filled with laughter, including their teacher, Axel slapped his head.

"Idiot…." He murmured, Roxas looked at the teacher in front of them, she was laughing, tears almost streaming from her eyes. Yes, she was one of the good-natured ones, she never shouted at you. But Roxas didn't care, all teachers were strict and horrible.

"So Roxas, what's it like in la-la land? Do they do algebra there as well?" his teacher joked, Roxas slumped down in his chair and crossed his arms, he hadn't gone to 'la-la land', he had just drifted off, that's all, "I think we'll take that as a 'No' then…" she said before returning back to her sums and explaining the long and complex string of numbers and letters and how they're connected in some way. Roxas returned his gaze to Naminé, she wasn't looking anymore, but someone was, "I think we know why Roxas drifted off earlier," their nosy teacher informed the class, motioning her head towards Naminé. Everyone laughed, except for Roxas, Naminé, Riku (who ever since the 'this scar proves it' incident had become a strictly non-liar and good-natured person) and strangely enough Axel. The red-head pulled a face and looked at Roxas, then at Naminé, he shuddered.

"Shut up!" Roxas screamed, he ran out of the room and into the street. He didn't know what to do, he just needed to get away from them … those stupid people who think he likes Naminé, he just wanted to know if she liked _him_! He ran all the way to the park. He hadn't been to the park in ages, he wondered whether it had changed in nine years. Nine years … seven years … he could remember them, clearly, Axel had saved his life, twice, "Shut up…" he told himself as he walked through the looming gates.

"Roxas? What the fuck are you doing here?" a blonde teenager came into view, Roxas squinted and saw a brunette attached to his side as though she was an added feature. He had an arm round her. Roxas shuddered, his brother was gross, when he was older he decided, he wouldn't get a girlfriend.

"Yeah … I'm not going back to that hell-hole … not ever, she's a right bitch she is…" Cloud laughed, Roxas tried to get away from him, "Yeah, anyway, got to go now … bye … see … you…" Everytime he saw his brother with that girl, he freaked out … it was scary, no, she was scary…

The boy ran off into a remote part of the park and sat there, just sat. He got hungrier and hungrier. Plus, there was art after lunch. Art was good. Art was a way to express yourself. Roxas had lots of things to express, he may not have been as good at art as Naminé, but it was the only part of school he liked, he didn't enjoy it, it just made him feel better.

As he entered school, the boy and the girl ran up to him happily, "Rox!" cried the boy, the girl smiled at him and nodded her head which seemed to be her greeting to everyone. Roxas smiled a bit; at least he had these two for a reason to come to school.

◊▫◊▫◊

"Why did you run off like that Rox?" asked the meek little girl next to him, he smiled, and added a bit more paint to his project.

"Because I was fed up…" he told her truthfully, he turned to look at her and she gazed into his big blue eyes, it didn't feel uncomfortable for Roxas even though he guessed it should have felt so.

"Hello, Rox…" Axel appeared in front of his face, waving his hand about, "Rox! Are you back, you drifted of into la-la land again!" Roxas snapped out of it, he seemed to be the only person in art not whispering about Roxas and Naminé being the next big item. He may have even been against it, "Hey!"

"Er … right … hey…" Roxas mumbled, not sure where Axel was heading or whether he was actually leading anywhere and had just stopped him from looking at Naminé for no reason.

"You don't really like like her do you!" Axel asked, a little too eagerly for Roxas, but Roxas replied with the answer he knew … thought was right.

"No, 'course not, she's my best friend, nothing' more … why?" Roxas told him, surely Axel knew that … didn't he, and why was he acting so panicky?

"OK … that's good…" Axel voice faded away as though he was lost in his own thoughts.

"No, seriously Axel, why?" Roxas asked him smirking, "Do you like Naminé?" Axel looked very flustered at the mention of this.

"No! Nononononononono, whatever gave you that idea?" Axel burbled on, trying to look like he didn't care, failing miserably as he noticed that the superglue tube somehow had attached itself to his thumb, and was not coming off.

"You like her, you like her, you like her, you like her…" Roxas merrily sang, whilst Axel's face burnt bright red, trying to get rid of the meddlesome tube which was still definitely _not _coming off.

"No I don't…." Axel whined, still frantically trying to get the embarrassing … thing off.

"You like her, youlikeher, youlikeher, youlikeher, youlikeheryoulikeher…" Roxas continued, it was getting faster and faster by the second.

"Well so do you!" Axel cried out, Roxas stopped for a minute then he brightly perked up with an answer to the statement.

"No I don't, youlikeheryoulikeheryoulikeher…" Roxas carried on singing.

"No I don't, I er…" Axel's eyes frantically swooped round the room, trying to find someone who would be satisfactory for Roxas to think Axel liked, not Kairi (she looked too much like Axel and it was freaky) not Wakka (that's just wrong) and finally settled on what he thought was the little girl in the corner, "I like SORA!" he shouted as the whole class turned to stare at him, Sora looked a little frightened and decided he'd hide behind Kairi who quickly pushed him away from behind her. At this moment Axel realised two things, a) Sora was not a girl and b) he didn't like Sora in any shape, smell or form. "Crrrraaaapppp…"

Roxas pulled a very strange face, "Sora?" he asked Axel, "Axel that's wrong, that's very, very, very wrong … not only is Sora of the same gender but he is also … well … Sora…" Axel slapped his head and tried to explain.

"No, I don't really like him, I don't even like him as a friend…" Sora peeped out from behind Wakka who was the only person who had let Sora hide behind him.

"You don't like me?" he sniffed, Axel shuddered.

"No, no I don't…"

"Then why did you say it was?" Roxas questioned him.

"To make you shut up and to hide the fact that I like someone else…" Axel replied, completely truthfully, he carried on trying to pull the painful glue off his hurt thumb, he winced.

"Is it … Naminé?" Roxas' voice looped up on the word Naminé, trying to make Axel say yes. Axel didn't like having this conversation with Roxas, he'd probably let something slip and then it would all go wrong and people would get very, very frightened, even more than they did when he said he liked Sora.

"No, it is not Naminé…" Axel told the intrigued boy, "Now please stop bugging me and help me with this goddam tube of glue…" The two pulled and pulled for nearly the whole lesson, until Naminé had the sense to cut it free with a magical instrument the elves and pixies like to call 'Scissors'.

◊▫◊▫◊

"OK, you two all packed?" Naminé and Axel nodded, they had their provisions for their week at Roxas'. Times like this made the attacks fun, times with turnip-heads daring you to go out and get yourself killed did not make the attacks fun.

Naminé laid out her sleeping bag next to Roxas' mattress of a bed. Axel, the same, except on the other side. Axel wasn't on good terms with Naminé for some reason, she had no idea why, but Roxas knew exactly why and he kicked himself over and over again for it. He wished he hadn't been so stupid and had annoyed Axel so much. It made everything really awkward … but it had been funny when Axel accidentally declared his undying love for Sora, even though Roxas had a strong suspicion that Axel didn't love Sora or like him … or anything beyond neutral.

"G'night Rox…"

"Good night Axel, Nam…"

"Night night…"

◊▫◊▫◊

"Why?" the boy looked questioningly up at his older brother, "That's not fair though…"

"Life's not fair Roxie, go on, just do it," Cloud pushed his helpless little brother out into the waiting monsters, where was Axel when he needed him? Right behind him as it happens. Thank god Roxas had invited him for the week. Roxas lingered a while in the doorway in case Paine might walk past and stop Cloud from obviously trying to murder him. But alas Paine did not walk past and stop Cloud from this most heinous act, "Go on Roxie, impress your little friends…" Cloud nudged him further out the door.

"Cloud…" his brother pushing him out further.

"CLOUD!" shouted his mother, "GET OFF YOUR BROTHER!" Cloud pushed Roxas out the door and closed it quickly. Paine started to lecture the boy, if it had been a cartoon it may have been rather humorous, with Paine telling Cloud off, whilst through the window, there was Roxas running back and forth trying to get away from the little black things as they lumbered after him, "Roxas!" Paine opened the door, grabbed Roxas by the scruff of his neck, she wrenched him inside, closed the curtain, sat Roxas on a chair, and Cloud into the other room.

"I'm fine mum…" Roxas tried to get up and leave, but she made sure he stayed put. She put her hand on his shoulder, and looked him in the eye.

"Tell me why Cloud was pushing you outside," he tried to avert his eyes, but his mother was way ahead of him, as she applied more pressure to her death-grip on the poor boy, forcing him to look up at her. It was impossible to lie to Paine, because he had his suspicions she kept a butcher knife somewhere and she wouldn't hesitate to brandish it on somebody who told an untruth in her house. She also wouldn't hesitate to jab it three inches into Cloud's eye, either, after the story Roxas was about to tell her – really, his brother could be so stupid!

"He… He wanted me to go out to the store to buy him some food," mumbled Roxas, wanting very much to return to the safety of staring at his shoe-laces. They looked less murderous than Paine right about now. "And I told him it was stupid because the shops wouldn't even be open now and I could die and … stuff … but he wouldn't listen… Andit'sallCloud'sfaultcanIgoupstairsandplayvideogamesnow?" he babbled, trying to veer Paine away from the fact that he'd nearly been killed. Well, now he was safe, but he didn't fancy Cloud's chances that much…

"You OK?" Naminé asked her friend, as she sat on her sleeping bags and played around with a bracelet in her hand. Roxas nodded and went over to his small library of games; he took one of the most destructive ones out and slotted it into the player.

"Yeah, I'm good," Roxas told the girl, "Are you good?" The girl nodded and took the controller he handed her, "Where's Axel?" he asked her, the girl responded with a shrug and a shake of the head, the house responded with an angry shout. "I guess mum's found Cloud…" Roxas muttered.

"Hey, it was a joke, dude…" mumbled a voice in response to the angry roar, and Roxas frowned. Cloud would never dare say 'dude' to Paine, she'd resort to getting her trusty butcher knife out. "Why are you getting so over-protective, anyway?"

"WELL IT WASN'T A VERY FUNNY JOKE!" shouted the voice that Roxas had deduced wasn't Paine. She'd probably heard all the noise and decided some greater God had decided to give her a day off her demanding duty of yelling at everybody. "YOU COULD'VE GOT HIM KILLED, YOU IDIOT!"

"Hey… I know that voice…" said Roxas after a while. It had been hard to figure out who it was because it was so loud and mutilated by fury and murderous urges, but he strained his ears … If he let the noise deafen him, he could tell it was...

"Axel! What the hell do you think you're doing?" Roxas muttered, knowing how much it hurt when Cloud had you in a headlock and was testing where _all _the pressure points on your body are. He turned to look at Naminé, "Stay here, and I'll go … sort him out…" As he walked the lovely sound of Axel shouting flowed around him in some sort of merry little song.

"AND WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE DONE IF HE REALLY DID HURT!" shouted that voice. Maybe the red hair equals a bad temper theory was based in truth, Roxas thought… He had never heard Axel be that angry before, not even when he got that tube of superglue stuck to his fingers yesterday. It was scary how pissed off he sounded.

"Why do you even care so much, anyway? It's not like I would have let him get hurt… You don't have to act like you've got some sort of weird crush on him…" countered Cloud, making Roxas freeze. Alright, that was … a disturbing thought. He was comforted by the fact that it obviously wasn't true, nope, everything was fine and happy and tra-la-la and Axel was as straight as … a number of straight objects. Yeah…

Axel paused in his shouting, and Roxas thought firstly how long it was taking to reach them, and secondly that maybe Cloud had offended him. Cloud was good at that.

He might have replied with something, but at that moment Roxas finally found them, Axel looking livid and Cloud looking sort of amused at the blush deepening on Axel's face, it wasn't quite there, but Roxas guessed that soon his face would be as red as his hair, and Axel would have to begin his new life as just a big red blob..

"You … two …" said Roxas, in a very false bright voice that sounded more like he was drowning. "Stop shouting at each other, everything's fine. Cloud, get lost."

Cloud smirked at Axel who seemed even more embarrassed that Roxas had heard Cloud's statement, although probably the whole house had heard it, it had been that damn loud. "You do, don't you?" he asked with a smirk, as he backed away from the look on Roxas' face. "Oh, don't worry… I'm gone, I'm gone! I don't want to stay here and listen to this crap." And true to his words, the evil blonde-haired boy skulked away to some dark, dark corner of humanity to reside in the pits of despair, in his teenage depressing-ness that made him COOL and attractive to Aerith.

"What was that about?" asked Roxas in a meek voice, looking at Axel who seemed angry again. And still embarrassed. "Don't worry, Cloud likes messing with people's heads, just ignore him when he says stupid stuff like that."

Axel seemed to be going through so many different emotions it was like looking through a kaleidoscope whilst in a car – it made you feel travel-sick. First he looked sort of offended, then annoyed (again), then confused, then sort of happy then a load of other emotions Roxas couldn't list. "Yeah… What he said … It was stupid…" muttered the red-head, allowing Roxas to drag him into his room so they could all play video games and have a grand old time.

**-x-x-x-**

_A/N: Awww … poor Axel. Hehe, I feel happy, I was listening to 'Super Girl' whilst Cloud was talking … lol. Well, anyway, next it they'll be fourteen and the story will actually PROPERLY start! They were 12 and Axel 13 in this chapter, so Cloud was 17 if you were wondering…_


	5. cry

-Chapter 4-

-jump-

It was even worse now, just wanting to prove to Roxas exactly how much he liked him. He pulled the blonde boy towards him, Roxas too dazed and confused to fight back, until he noticed Axel's head was coming worryingly closer to his, his lips. He closed the distance by pressing his lips to the blonde's, and he squeaked in surprise, pulling away suddenly, jerking his head back, making Axel bite his tongue in shock. Maybe he felt a little sorry for the red-head, but that didn't stop him running away, shooting a last confused look over his shoulder at him, the boy slumping to the floor like a limp doll, eyes closed. He was … crying? What else did he seriously expect Roxas to do under the circumstances, the stupid boy?

Why did Roxas feel so sorry for him?

◊▫◊▫◊

"Naminé! Naminé, are you there?" the boy shouted, a girl in her dressing gown came to the door, "It's only eight, why are you in your pajamas?" Naminé yawned and looked at the clock in the kitchen.

"Roxas, it's eleven, and I want to get to sleep, what's the matter?" the girl didn't look annoyed ... just sleepy. Roxas realised how long things had taken when he was with Axel, he hoped the boy was OK, he then realised how long he'd been running about searching for some sanctuary.

"Sorry ... it's just ... just..." Roxas bowed his head in sadness, fear and anger. Naminé looked worried, she'd never seen Roxas look like this, however emo he was.

"C'mon, come and tell me what's the matter..." Roxas knew he wouldn't be able to actually tell her, that would make him feel bad, Axel feel bad and Naminé feel bad, he followed her through. She sat down in the living room and got Roxas to sit next to her, "So, what's the ma ... Oh SHIT! They said it was tomorrow ... Roxas go close the door, I'll close the curtains," he ran over to the door, and caught a glimpse of one of the great, ugly beasts Axel had saved him from twice. Roxas gulped and slammed the door shut, he felt sick, Axel... 

"You OK? Do you want to tell me now? I think we're safe..." Naminé was gabbling on to him, but he didn't really care, Axel was still in the park, the prime spot for attacks.

"Naminé! Axel, he's in the park!" Naminé's face fell, she hadn't been expecting this, she looked at Roxas, her eyes large and watery, Roxas looked away, "We've gotta get him Nam..." Naminé nodded her head and fetched her black coat.

"C'mon then..." she whispered almost silently, she opened the door and immediately she knew it was a mistake, the black blobs attacked her at once, but Roxas, an expert at this by now, kicked them off the girl. He wrapped her in both his arms, and sprinted through the masses of enveloping darkness. He kicked them all off, wishing he'd had the sense to bring a torch, he pushed through them all. The two nervously ran on through the shadows, they found the park, looking even gloomier and sad than usual. They ran through the gates, Roxas holding Naminé tighter than before. She could tell he was afraid, and so was she, she huddled closer to him.

"It'll be OK..." he whispered to her, although he didn't sound too sure himself. The park loomed closer and closer, the girl crying silently while the blackness watched over them. The boy was crying too. They finally reached the park and Roxas let go of Naminé, they didn't stop to breathe, they just ran straight on to find their friend. "Axel!" Roxas knew he was too late.

◊▫◊▫◊

He looked at the thing next to him, it looked like it was sitting next to the boy. He'd expected it to attack him straight off, but it hadn't. "Er … hello?" he asked it, what the hell was he doing. He was talking to a shadow! He wondered if he was going insane over Roxas. Probably. "Why haven't you attacked me?" he asked it.

The thing looked up at him and Axel looked back at it. He was sure there was a glimmer in its eye. Maybe a glimmer of recognition. He _was _going insane.

"I'm Axel … I guess you can't tell me your name…" the thing seemed to nod, Axel smiled, he was sure there was a reason for it not attacking him. "Yeah…" he looked at the deadly thing again. It was just sitting there, but why? "I bet you have lots of friends, I mean, there's LOADS of you … I don't have any…" the black shadow seemed to be shaking its head as if to say he hadn't any friends. He guessed they just banded together to attack people – they never bothered with acquaintances.

"Axel!" Axel was sure he heard a voice, but the voices inside his head were louder.

"Axel! Axel, come … please … Axel … Axel…" another voice, still the voices in his head overruled them. They were telling him to befriend … befriend one of _those_. The thing looked up at the boy. The boy looked down at the thing, he guessed it needed a name. He looked around for some inspiration, he still could neither hear nor see Roxas and Naminé who were desperately trying to get his attention.

"I call you Roxas. Except you'll be better, you want to be my friend…" 'Roxas' looked up at him again and Axel was positive that 'he' was happy about this. He suddenly realised that there was a tugging at his arm.

"Axel … come on, please Axel, Axel, please … Axel? Axel!" Axel realised the boy and girl had been listening to his conversation, "Axel, I am your friend … Axel, Axel please come, Axel?" Axel pulled his sleeve back and caught a glimpse of Naminé shivering behind Roxas. For some reason the other black things couldn't attack the three. They were held back, as though some invisible force kept them at bay. If they went out of the ring surrounding the bench Axel was seated upon the shadows would be able to attack them once again.

"Get off, you're not my friend…" Axel turned away, he didn't know what to do, he knew he loved Roxas, and he couldn't help that. But he certainly didn't love Naminé, she could go to hell.

"But Axel…" Roxas seemed was thrown back by the wall now. Some weird force was separating things. Roxas and Naminé were pulled back out of the little place. If Axel had not been so down with his thoughts he might have noticed, might have cared, and maybe even tried to pull them back. But this was not to be.

"Roxas! Roxas, help!" Naminé screamed as she was forced to the ground in an opposite direction to the blonde boy, the shadows seeming to lick their lips as though thinking, 'Fresh girl for dinner tonight…' "ROXAS!" Roxas was lying on the floor, the wall had stopped pushing him and had left him there. The boy's eyes were closed and the girl tried to run over to him through the blobs of black which were scattered all over the place, "Roxas, get up! Roxas, get UP!" she pulled him up and made an effort to drag him back to her house, keeping him as safe as possible.

◊▫◊▫◊

"You OK?" the girl pushed her hair behind her ear, he could feel a bubbly feeling in the pit of his stomach. He groaned and tilted his head slightly, the feeling wouldn't go away. He groaned again. The girl bit her lip and gently kicked a bucket towards him. He shook his head and his head hit the pillow, he groaned again. Naminé leant down to him and laid her hand on his forehead. He made a few more groaning noises; the feeling down in his stomach didn't seem like it was ever going to go away. She moved her hand into his hair and stroked his head. He turned round to look at her and smiled weakly. She felt a jolt in her stomach, he was smiling at her; he was alive. "Roxas…" she looped her arms round him, crying. He seemed stunned and happy and sad.

"Nam … ie…" he tried to talk to her; failing miserably, "Nam…" she stopped him and held a bowl of something to him. He looked into it and groaned again, he wasn't up for food, or soup or whatever the hell was in the bowl, yet.

"OK … Oh, Roxas, he said you were dead! Roxas…" she started to cry yet again, she didn't like her dad anymore than he liked her, "Roxas, please don't go again, please don't go…" Roxas was confused; he'd no idea why she was so upset. Well, she had been told that he'd died, but that wasn't the point. Surely she knew that he wasn't going to run off.

"I won't go…" he had regained his speaking abilities now, "I'll stay right here with you, OK?" she looked up at him and smiled, wiping away her tears. He smiled back, he liked it when Naminé smiled, it made him remember when they were little and they would hang around with, "AXEL!" he shouted out in alarm.

"Roxas…" Now he knew why she'd told him not to go, she didn't want him going after Axel. She wanted him to stay with her, she was afraid. "Roxas, they're still out there … they'll … they'll kill you…" she gulped, her eyes filling up with tears again. She had been so sure that Roxas had died, she hadn't come to think of what she'd do if he survived. The soup had actually been for her and was ice cold now as she hadn't had any of it.

"Sorry…" he whispered to himself, to Axel and to Naminé for scaring her. He laid back down on the pillow, and closed his eyes. His stomach bubbled again, he groaned again and threw up into the bucket.

Naminé bit her lip again and gave Roxas some water, he took a few sips before dropping off to sleep again. How much sleep did he actually need? Naminé didn't care though, as long as she could see his chest move up and down. She sighed and knelt down beside her bed onto a cushion, then she laid her head down next to his and fell asleep.

◊▫◊▫◊

He woke up drearily, he was lying on a bench, the sun was beating down and one of _them _was next to him, sitting there, watching, just watching. He jumped up in fright and noticed all the other shadow-like beings staring at him. He pulled a face and wondered why they weren't attacking him. Then he remembered, "Shit…" he gasped. Axel's legs turned to jelly as the boy started to cry, he fell onto the dewy grass. The previous night flashed into his head, remembering kissing Roxas, remembering meeting the shadow, remembered Roxas trying to get Axel away from it, remembering Roxas getting knocked out, remembering just sitting there not doing anything and letting Naminé carry him away. The boy was afraid, he couldn't go 'home' because home was no longer home. It wasn't his, it was _hers_. And he'd probably be greeted with not a relieved smile from his mother, but a beating from his dad.

"Axel! There you are, Reno says you've got to come," a calm girl's voice travelled coldly towards him. He twisted his head round to see Kairi standing admist fields and fields of black things. Axel looked puzzled, then realised she was dressed totally in black and so looked like one of them. He sniffed and followed her through, even if she looked like one, he didn't. The things started to attack him but Kairi kicked them away, she couldn't be bothered to get told off by Reno today, she felt like relaxing. She didn't need Sora to do that. Of course she didn't, she hated Sora. She shook her head as she kicked another shadow-beast to the ground.

"Why … why did dad send you to find me?" asked Axel, his nose blocked up from crying and his eyes watering, ever so slightly red.

"Because if you get killed by one of them, then he has to pay for the funeral and get a lecture from your mum and stuff," she told him, casually knocking down a few other stupid creatures that crossed her path. She hated Axel _and_ Sora she decided.

"Mmm hmm…" Axel drifted off as they passed Naminé's house, he could see her light was turned on, he couldn't see any movement but he knew that Roxas would be in there, and they'd be talking about him. Making jokes about him. He was about to cry again but before he could Kairi stood stock still, he almost bumped into her. He followed her gaze and looked at the things in front of her. They were the shadow beasts, but they weren't right. They weren't immediately coming to attack Axel and his sister. They were just sitting there, like 'Roxas'.

◊▫◊▫◊

"_What's going on? It was never meant to get this far … they were meant to help … what's going on? What are they doing? God, help us all … we need a miracle to save us! Huh? What's this?"_

◊▫◊▫◊

The boy opened his eyes and closed them again. He yawned and stretched his arms out. He heard someone wince. The boy looked at the girl who had her head lying right next to him. She hadn't woken up even after him smacking her in the face; she had just sort of flopped over to one side and was just lying there limply. He smiled, she looked cute when she was asleep, he let her sleep and he just watched her as she did so.

"Unghhhh … No! Roxas … Roxas, don't, Axel … please…" Roxas suddenly became afraid when she started to talk in her sleep, she sounded scared and lost. He didn't know whether to wake her or not, it sounded like she was in danger. She started to shout and Roxas panicked.

He tried to calm her, "Nams … Naminé, what's wrong? Naminé? Naminé, please wake up, you're scaring me, Naminé?" listening to his voice seemed to soothe her, so he kept on talking to her. He felt like an older brother telling his younger sister a story. He told her about fun times he and the girl had had together, and happy times with the three of them including Axel. After a while, she started to breathe more slowly and regularly. He sighed and got out of her bed. She'd even let him take her bed. He tried to heave her onto it and eventually he got her up. He didn't want to go out the room in case her dad was about. He was always grumpy and he was angry with Yuna, but he couldn't take his anger out on her, so he took it out on Naminé. Axel and Roxas were scared of him.

He walked round the room a bit, searching for something to do. He paused at the bookshelf, there upon it were rows and rows of notebooks and drawing pads and jotters. He took one out and immediately recognised when it was from. The wax crayon imprintings were from when they were five, it was obvious by the way they stood, every year, they stood in a different way. Axel may be a little further away from the two, or Roxas and Naminé would be holding hands. When they were five they all held hands, all the time, them as five year olds was when they were closest. He realised that she had been keeping a diary, but not a usual diary, a picture diary. He flicked through it. Some of the pictures were really happy with Roxas and Axel and Naminé holding hands and looking really cute, but there was one which disturbed Roxas somehow. It was of a black shadow thing rising up and almost eating a blonde haired kid, whilst a red haired kid was kicking the thing, looking all heroic. Naminé was in the backround looking hopeless and stupid. He carried on going, all the pictures now contained Naminé looking pathetic and unhappy. He went through the other books, right the way up to now, fourteen. There it was, a large number stated clearly on it in biro. He picked it up gently and opened it, the paged crackling as they did so, it was a new book and he could tell.

"Rox … Roxas…"

**-x-x-x-**

_A/N: Hehe, Naminé has NIGHTMARES! Roxas is finding out how the poor girl really feels and Axel … well Axel's going INSANE! _


	6. walk

-Chapter 5-

-walk-

Axel watched the monsters, and breathing slowly he took the coat off Kairi. She looked up at him, a stern look in her eye. He shrugged and pulled the whole coat off. Kairi glared at him. Axel pointed at the heartless – they weren't moving, or doing anything.

Kairi's eyes widened as she stared round at them. They stood, blinking at her and Axel gave her a 'I-know-it's-weird' look. She stepped forward, and they immediately started snapping at her. She ran back into the space she had been in before.

"What's going on?!" came a voice from a nearby house. Kairi turned round, her face painted with fright.

"I don't know!" Kairi called back, not caring that she was talking a random stranger. Axel didn't know what was going and she didn't know, either, so maybe this strange person did. She wanted to talk to somebody who understood! She hated not knowing things – when she read murder stories she always flipped to see who had done it. She had to, it was in her nature to know things. And she'd been wondering about the heartless for a very long time.

"Are you kids alright?" asked the person, not daring to exit the house. They were probably afraid of the heartless. Everybody was afraid of the heartless.

"Yeah! They're not ... doing much..." Kairi replied again, staring at the heartless. The heartless stared back, like it was some sort of game. Kairi blinked and looked away, the yellow eyes seeming to bore holes in her head. She knew she'd never be able to win a staring with them. They never blinked, they just looked out ahead. It was _creepy_.

"Do you think you'd be able to leave them without them attacking you?" asked the disembodied voice. Aptly named because the two-red-heads had no idea who was talking 'behind the door'.

"No... When we move they attack..." said Kairi, digging Axel in the ribs. _Why wasn't he saying anything?_ He was looking at the heartless with a stupid grin on his face, like he was looking at his 'true love' or something. And every so often he addressed them as 'Roxas'.

"If you move through them slowly, without any sudden movements, then their brains will not register it. They're deadly but they're pretty dim – that's why, if you run away from them quickly, you've got less of a chance of survival. You're standing still – that... might be the reason they're not attacking."

"But, they're **looking** straight at us!"

"I said 'might'!"

Kairi nodded, although it was obvious he (you could tell it was a man speaking from the deep voice) couldn't see her. It was too dark, the only light the eyes of the heartless. They never blinked.

The red-head grabbed hold of Axel's hand, and started to walk very slowly through the seas of heartless. They continued to stare at the spot they'd been standing in before, in fixed wonder and amazement. Although heartless couldn't feel wonder or amazement. If they could they'd have gone crazy and killed themselves from the sheer realisation that they'd hurt so many.

She made her way to the house, and was ushered into the open door by the man.

She didn't know who it was, and, looking back on the events, it was probably really stupid to go along with him. He could easily have been a child molester using the heartless so the children would be driven into his house. But Kairi was with Axel, who was tall, and when you are with a tall person one generally doesn't try to molest you.

The lights were on in the house, and Kairi could see the man clearly now.

He had white hair and was wearing a white lab coat, and was smaller than Axel. So, he definitely wasn't going to try to molest them, even if it had been his original plan. Even though Axel was just stood there in the middle of what Kairi presumed to be the kitchen (it had a table and a cooker) with a stupid smile on his face, like he'd just received a message from God.

Anyway, how did he know so much about the heartless, anyway?

"Take a seat, please," said the man, waving his hand in the general direction of the table and the chairs that were arranged around it, as if waiting for a party to arrive and sit on them and take out packets of crisps and turn the TV on in the corner to 'watch the game'. It was sort of sad – there were all those seats, but they were covered in dust and Kairi knew that nobody had sat there in a while.

Maybe he only had so many chairs and so much knowledge about the heartless because they'd killed all his friends.

Kairi felt a bit bad about sitting on the chairs, thinking that maybe the last person who'd been there was now dead...

She didn't really have time to dwell on this, however, because Axel was still stood there looking like a drugged-up fool, and she had to pull him down onto a chair next to her. He was being embarrassing. It wasn't her who was meant to look after Axel – Axel was _older than her_. It should be he who fought off the heartless and dragged her, hero-style, into the house. He should've consoled her and let her cry into his lap. Kairi wished somebody was there for her. When she was little Axel looked out for her. And now she knew how he felt – he probably wanted somebody to comfort him, too.

The man went over to some cabinets and took out some glasses, and started to pour some strawberry milkshakes for his guests.

The smell washed over Kairi and it made her stomach churn, but she couldn't say 'no'. She would sound like a horrible selfish brat. After all, he had saved their lives.

"Thank you, er..." Kairi said politely, as the man put a drink down in front of her. She did not know what to call him...

"Xehanort."

"Oh. I'm Kairi, and this is my brother Axel," she introduced them, pointing first at her, then at Axel. He was smiling happily like the people you saw in movies. They always lived in mental institutions and forgot things, and were there to make people laugh. But seeing Axel in such a state was anything but funny. "So... How do you know so much about the heartless?" she questioned, taking a sip of her drink. Axel just sat there, like his brain had been replaced with rocks.

"I used to work in Hollow Bastion. Ansem was a scientist, I was his apprentice. The city was filled with innocent people, and we had been ordered to make ways to protect them. It was a big city, and with big cities come crime. Murders. Deaths. We wanted to create creatures that would police the city and take care of these crimes. Put smiles on children's faces. The general stuff. But the first lot we made were hopeless. They were too humanoid. They couldn't handle the job. They were too weak-minded and let the criminals off, through pity. So we studied their brains and cut things out and removed the hearts. And then we knew ... We'd created monsters... I wanted to stop, but Ansem said that we had to continue. That we'd get it right eventually. I left before the situation got worse, and hoped he'd stop too. But he didn't. He tried again and again, until there were thousands of heartless. Ansem had to leave and the heartless found the cloning machine. They created armies of them, and killed everyone in Hollow Bastion. And spread. All they know is how to kill. They can't die. They are indestructible. Everyone in Hollow Bastion died. All the children. I couldn't let it happen again, not to you two."

Kairi stared at Ansem in shock, eyes wide, hand to her mouth.

"So... This is all _your_ fault?!"

"I admit that ... It wasn't our intention to create such horrible monsters. But it happened. And we can't get rid of them."

"My brother's like this because of the heartless!" screamed Kairi, looking at Axel. "They've ruined everything! We can't walk two steps without being attacked! We live in fear all the time! All the time!" She was sobbing now, and Axel wasn't there to comfort her. He was staring out into space, hands clenching into fists and unclenching. Clenching and unclenching.

"I'm sorry, Kairi."

◊▫◊▫◊

"_Heartless... It says there are certain places on the earth where they cannot go... An energy flows there... Maybe if we used that energy, amplified it, and sent it throughout all the places hit the hardest... The heartless would all disappear!"_

◊▫◊▫◊

Naminé looked out of her window, blue eyes large. Her breath was misting up the glass, as she stared intently at the streets below her.

The heartless were slowly started to disappear, fading into the ground, becoming nothing more than story-book nightmares. They weren't real anymore. Just things people spoke about in hushed voices...

Whenever the heartless left people forgot how horrifying they were.

They went out into the streets and laughed and played.

And then came back and hit the place ten times worse than before, and more people died.

It had been like that for ages and would stay like that unless thought of a way to kill them. A vicious, never-ending cycle.

"Roxas... It's over..." whispered the blonde, staring down as the last heartless vanished from view. "But ... Axel ... Axel's not back... He could have been killed!" she said, sniffing. A few tears ran down her pale, china-doll coloured cheek. It was just like her pictures – she was small and pathetic. And she couldn't do a single thing to help.

"It's not your fault, Naminé," said the other blond quietly, coming over to her and putting his arms around her comfortingly.

"It is. I'm weak and stupid," she sniffed, placing her head on his chest. She felt safe in his arms, together in their own little bubble where nothing could get them. Axel was excluded, pushed to the side. With the heartless. Maybe he was dead. Maybe he wasn't. She couldn't do anything about it.

"Naminé. It's not _your_ fault. You can't do a thing to stop them. Nobody can."

"Does that mean they'll just keep _coming_?"

"I ... I don't know..." Roxas whispered into her hair.

**-x-x-x-**

**A.N:** Yes. This is dedicated to Pride1289, who sent me a PM a while back, telling me to get off my lazy ass and write some more. So I'm really sorry for the wait... like... really, really sorry. And I hope you forgive me!

So, I'll take one review for an update, I guess...


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